NON-PROFIT REPORT: InterVol Inc.

InterVol Inc. recovers and redistributes unused medical supplies and equipment and provides volunteer opportunities for medical professionals and aspiring educators to serve people in need elsewhere in the world.

The organization was founded in 1989 by Ralph Pennino M.D., now chief of surgery at Rochester General Hospital, after he had done medical volunteer work with AmeriCares in Siberia. In Russia he had seen needs for medical supplies and equipment and realized that they could be met with supplies being discarded in the United States because they were outdated or surplus, though still usable.

InterVol's co-founder was a colleague of Pennino, Timothy O'Connor M.D., now chief of plastic surgery at Rochester General, who helped develop the organization's program to send local groups on medical missions. Since 1989, InterVol has been involved in medical missions to Haiti, Belize, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Through its humanitarian efforts, InterVol seeks to provide medical consultation and treatment in areas with limited access to health care; to develop long-term partnerships with health care providers in other parts of the world; to foster volunteerism, especially in work that involves people of different generations; to create connections between local people and communities elsewhere in the world; to educate children in communities abroad while also giving local people opportunities for civic engagement and service learning; and to promote environmental responsibility by avoiding the waste of usable medical supplies and equipment.

InterVol's programs:

Recovery of Unused Medical Supplies collects up to 4 tons of unused medical supplies and equipment each week from Rochester-area hospitals and health care providers. The goal is to distribute the supplies to local, national and international organizations that need them most. Items are sorted, stored and shipped from a warehouse on the Riedman Campus of Rochester General Hospital.

Volunteer Medical Professionals draws volunteers from a broad range of health specialties to participate in medical mission trips to remote clinics worldwide. InterVol also has begun development of an animal welfare initiative, in collaboration with Cornell University's veterinarian program, which will offer supplies to animal welfare organizations and will provide animal medical services, both at home and abroad.

Friends Across Borders, established in 2005, strives to improve the lives of children abroad, chiefly in Belize. Volunteer teachers in the program come from many areas of Western New York, including students from high schools and colleges as well as health care and information technology staff members from Rochester General Hospital.

InterVol has two full-time and two part-time employees, and Amanda DeFisher is executive director. Its office is on the Riedman Campus of Rochester General Hospital at 100 Kings Highway S., Suite 1200, in Irondequoit, and its website is www.intervol.org.